When right-hander Marcus Stroman opted out of the final year and $21MM of his deal with the Cubs over the winter to test free agency, he kicked off a relatively quiet foray into the open market for a pitcher of his caliber. The veteran only received publicly-known interest from the Royals prior to him landing a two-year deal with the Yankees that guaranteed him $37MM.
At the time of Stroman’s agreement in the Yankees, Jon Heyman of the New York Post indicated that a handful of other teams were interested in the righty’s services before he ultimately landed in the Bronx. Heyman discussed Stroman’s free agency further in a recent article, expanding upon interest Stroman received from the Giants that he had previously reported while also reporting that the Padres, who had not previously been connected to Stroman, made the 32-year-old an offer.
Per Heyman, Stroman reportedly considered both two- and three-year offers from the San Francisco as well as a longer deal with a lower average annual value from San Diego. It’s not clear how the offers the veteran received from the Giants and Padres stacked up relative to the two-year, $37MM guarantee he ultimately accepted from the Yankees, though Heyman indicates that signing with the Yankees was Stroman’s preference as a Long Island native who grew up a fan of the club.
That the Giants and Padres were in the hunt for pitching throughout the offseason is hardly a surprise. After all, each club made buzzer-beater deals just before the season began to add front-of-the-rotation starters; the Giants inked left-hander Blake Snell to a two-year deal worth $62MM in late March, shortly after the Padres swung a deal with the White Sox to acquire right-hander Dylan Cease. Those weren’t the only additions made by those clubs this winter either, as San Francisco landed Jordan Hicks in free agency as well as Robbie Ray by trade while San Diego’s return for superstar outfielder Juan Soto was headlined by right-hander Michael King.
Given both clubs’ respective needs for pitching, it’s easy to see how Stroman could have fit into the rotation mix of either club. The right-hander sports a 3.40 ERA and 3.59 FIP since the start of the 2021 season and could’ve slotted comfortably into the front of San Francisco’s rotation alongside Logan Webb or replaced Snell in the Padres rotation alongside Joe Musgrove and Yu Darvish. That being said, it’s possible that an early addition of Stroman may have blocked either club from pursuing their respective late-spring blockbusters due to financial concerns, much as the Yankees and Snell failed to come to an agreement following the Stroman deal despite seemingly making progress earlier in the offseason.
For the Giants, the addition of Stroman at even the $18.5MM AAV he landed in New York would have not only pushed them past the second $257MM luxury tax threshold, but also would have put them just over $5MM away from the third $277MM threshold according to RosterResource. The Padres, meanwhile, signed the likes of Yuki Matsui and Wandy Peralta to deals far longer than they were projected for this winter in order to tamp down the AAV on those deals. That’s allowed the club to limbo under the lowest threshold of the luxury tax, which sits at $237MM, to open the season.
It’s unlikely that the Padres would’ve been able to dip under the tax this year while still being able to afford Cease’s $8MM salary had they landed Stroman. Even a five-year deal in a similar range to the Yankees’ total guarantee would have left the veteran right-hander with an AAV in the neighborhood of $8MM, which would leave virtually no margin for error given the club sits just over $11MM below the first threshold as things stand.
Giants froogle and anemic management fails to sign another player. Half assing their intentions. You either go for it or rebuild. Go dodgers
instead they got some scrub named Blake
lol. Sure.
Stick to the team you know. Less embarrassment that way.
Is this a time traveling MLBtraderumors commenter? It feels like it’s November ‘23 in here!
Sounds about right Andy, the average Dodger fan seems to be six months “slow”
Shadow Banned, As the article states, “signing with the Yankees was Stroman’s preference as a Long Island native who grew up a fan of the club”.
But since that doesn’t fit your preferred narrative, you say it’s because of the Giants ” anemic management” and “(h)alf assing their intentions”. Just a really pathetic take. We all have our biases, but most of us try to keep them from verging into the blatant and absurd.
I believe they also said he took less money to go to the yanks aswell. Now that could be in over all money in a padres style deal or just straight up higher aav
Dodgers signed Betts from his beloved Red Sox. Zaidi is socially awkward and fails to understand the human allure. Although a tougher sell the giants could have delivered a vision to stroman of what it would be like to move out west. Can’t blame the giants too much since the yanks are better and his preferred team but idk.
Dodgers didn’t sign Betts away from the Sox, they traded for him. Sticking to your own team is really working for ya, eh Shadow? Awkward!
Shadow Banned, Your take on this is just a variation of the typical dumb fam comment; that some team should have signed so-and-so. As if any team can sign any player they want, and not doing so demonstrates ineptitude.
I wish us fans had more information to make better comments, but some will insist on categorically stating just about anything on the slimmest amount of information, while others will ignore the information that is available
The word you were looking for is frugal, also not sure you know what anemic means. The giants were anything but “froogal” this off-season.
Yeah, it’s hard to take someone seriously when frugal gets spelled as froogal. How many decades has spellcheck been around?
Meanwhile the Dodgers fail to do their due diligence on Trevor Bauer. Urias, Puig and a corrupt interpreter.
Same way the Giants had Juice head Barry up in San Fran for years
Shadow Banned, Are you under the illusion that no Dodger players juiced?
The weekend was that they were in in him and hicks and Webb reached out and courted hicks who has Honestly Been the best starter on the staff and very affordable
He’s wanted to be a Yankee forever.
Must say, so far so good. He’s been better than I thought.
Sinker looks great. When it’s moving right and he keeps it low, he is really tough. He can and will throw you off with the cutter AND the slider as soon as you start to key in on number 1. I like watching him, he’s a pitchers pitcher. Deep arsenal and a corner painter.
I’d love to see him keep this up for a whole season. He has runs like this just about every year but like clockwork it seems when the fatigue starts to hit the sinker starts to really rise on him and cause problems.
As a jays fans i always like him and im sure you guys will to. I like it when players have some emotion and swag in the field. You need guys like that to help grow the game. I want my pitcher to be hype when he gets a big out or GB, i want him to be pissed he gave up a 2 run moon shot, i want a team player and a guy who tells it how it is. That Stroman to me
His inability to grow a decent beard
locked it down.
oldgfan, A lot of people try to be funny here, but that was funny.
Last thing the Padres needed was another player in his 30’s on a long term contract. Roster inflexibility must stop. Ownership should have put their foot down on another one of those signings.
Padres are doing just fine. They are selling out all their home games & are currently at .500. Stro would have been a nice add, but Dylan Cease fits their need in SP rotation as well.
I’m sure they weren’t the only teams…no big whoop!
As much as I hate the 3 or 4 for one trade… the Padres made out on getting Dylan Cease…2 years of control on a contract that will be less than 20 million as opposed to a two year deal at 37 million for Stroman….17 million dollar savings.
Now if Cease doesn’t blow his arm out like the trend seems to be for pitchers then hats off to AJ Preller for getting it done
I have to say I’m impressed with the way the Giants changed Jordan Hicks’ approach by dialing it back a little. He’s had great success and will likely hold up better health wise.
He’s one of the best pitchers in baseball so far this season, and Def the bargain of the off-season. Cards never stretched him out, they just threw him into the rotation after years of relief
I think the real problem was the fact that he was going full force with every pitch when he was on the Cardinals. His body didn’t hold up well doing that. The Giants have convinced him to dial it back for most pitches. It’s working and I think he’ll hold up better.
Both his K% and BB% are down and he’s been a guy who pitches below a .300 BABIP. Good to see him transitioning well.
Fangraphs tells me it’s the sinker. Slower, more horizontal movement, better command.
Well, it’s still early, and because of the small sample, I wouldn’t claim the conversion of Hicks to starter a success yet, but so far he’s been terrific. What I do know though is the Giants reasoning for trying it has been justified. I didn’t understand why so many people condemned the attempt from the start. I wasn’t sure it would pan out, but I thought it was reasonable to try. Seems like it was.
I was one of those who thought it was a bad idea. His ability to stay on the mound was bad as a reliever. I didn’t think he’d hold up as a starter. Convincing him to stop going max velocity on each pitch may change that. Time will tell.
Agree; time will tell, as it does with every FA signing. Every FA signing is a gamble. Health is always a huge factor in the success or failure in any signing,
I liked the Giants signing Hicks since, even if he failed as a SP, he had value as a RP. But, of course value is lost with the inability to be available.
I’d also add that the Card’s’ attempt at letting Hicks start was half-hearted at best, and just not good overall. It was the lock-out year with the truncated ST, so he had that working against him. They had him add a change-up, that they wanted him to throw once an inning, but he couldn’t throw it for a strike. So instead of finding a better off-speed pitch for him, they simply canned the change-up, and put him back in the pen. His sinker is really good, and the sweeper, which he added last season, is a plus addition to his arsenal. The Giants might just have found a solid SP.
Hicks & Lee are the best performing new acquisitions to date. Really hope Hicks finishes as well as he has started. Love it when the naysayers proved to be wrong.
Eh… Snell is a proven contract year stepper-upper. Player option does not give incentive. Poor Giants.
Glad Zaidi didn’t get suckered into signing Stroman. Much rather have Snell, Ray (even if recovering from injury) & Hicks.
Stroman definitely would not have been a good fit both on the field & clubhouse. There are reasons Mets & Blue Jays didn’t want Stroman.
Stroman would have been comfortable in SF, especially in that ballpark. Would have been an instant fan favourite. Yankees decision is still a good one.